ALTHOUGH MICROSOFT had planned to pull the plug on support for Windows 98 and ME early this year, the firm said today it will extend the life of the products for more than two years. Support for Windows 98, 98SE and ME will now be available until the middle of June 2006.

Microsoft was going to deck the products at the end of this week, and we can only presume that it's corporate customers banging furiously at its door which has caused it to extend the life of the products. In a statement, Microsoft said it has an overall policy now to support products for seven years. It will also provide security updates for the operating environments.